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Bug In Android Passes Keystrokes To Root Shell
Posted by
Soulskill
on Sat Nov 08, 2008 02:18 PM
from the watch-what-you-type dept.
from the watch-what-you-type dept.
pasokon writes "ZDNet reports on an Android bug in T-Mobile G1s with early versions of the firmware: 'When the phone booted it started up a command shell as root and sent every keystroke you ever typed on the keyboard from then on to that shell. Thus every word you typed, in addition to going to the foreground application would be silently and invisibly interpreted as a command and executed with superuser privileges. ... open the keyboard tray on your G1, ignore anything you see on the screen, and type these 8 keystrokes: (enter)-r-e-b-o-o-t-(enter). Poof, your phone will reboot.'"
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chrb writes "Following hot on the heels of the G1 root exploit, Jay Freeman now has Debian ARM running on the G1. The RC30 update has fixed the root hole, but with utilities and images already available to replace the flash image with your own signed code, it looks like the manufacturer-hacker arms race is on."
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This is simply mind-boggling. (Score:5, Insightful)
I can't imagine how or why anyone could accidentally pipe all user input through a root shell. This is one for the WTF of the decade.
-jcr
Re:This is simply mind-boggling. (Score:5, Informative)
Read this:
http://android.jim.sh/index.php/ConsoleShell [android.jim.sh]
Looks like debugging code left behind...
Parent
Re:This is simply mind-boggling. (Score:5, Informative)
Parent
Re:This is simply mind-boggling. (Score:5, Funny)
If you want to keep from fubar-ing your G1 by typing in the wrong stuff accidentally, just type "cat [enter]" first thing when you power on the device, and it will be defused from then on. All input will be harmlessly filed away to stdout.
Wait--you're missing the big picture.
Jailbreak the phone!
Woo! We now have root access! We can hax0r the phone and load our own custom applic...what? Oh. Shit. Wrong phone. I'll wait for the next iPhone article.
Parent
Re:This is simply mind-boggling. (Score:5, Funny)
This is obviously bad for Apple. I mean if the iPhone weren't all like, locked down, and, um....
Yeah, anyway, the iPhone is done for, no question. I mean you can't even GET to root shell on an iPhone, and here it is a standard feature on Android! Mind-boggling indeed!
Parent
Re:This is simply mind-boggling. (Score:5, Insightful)
I can perfectly well imagine someone purposely piping all the user input to root shell for easy debug and development, then forgetting to disable it in the release version.
Parent
Re:This is simply mind-boggling. (Score:5, Informative)
The latest OTA update is RC30, which patches the issue (I confirmed this on my G1).
Parent
Scary (Score:5, Funny)
Imagine the scamming possible: "reply to this text message with the access code telnetd for a chance to win $1000!"
Confluence (Score:5, Funny)
Suddenly, the memory-and-keystroke-saving command names of the past combine with the keystroke-saving text-speak of the present to create the nightmarish user interaction bugs of the future.
Re:Confluence (Score:5, Funny)
The extraordinary synergistic elements of modern input paradigms combined with the forward thinking interactivity of the past pushes the envelope of tomorrow's technology to new heights.
Parent
reboot (Score:4, Funny)
doesn't wo
Open source, remember? fix already out (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Open source, remember? fix already out (Score:5, Insightful)
Parent
Re:Open source, remember? fix already out (Score:5, Interesting)
Bingo - You won't see this sort of turnaround time for a fix for the iPhone.
and this is why FOSS is a champion to me - the community fixes the issue and everyone else can check the fix to make sure it's not malicious.
And this is why all gov't entities in the USA should use FOSS. The people/community as a whole can do a better job of keeping the government secure than corporations can.
Parent
Life under the thumb of cellular phone companies.. (Score:5, Interesting)
Are we really that messed up as a society?
If I type "Reboot" and the device actually reboots, doesn't that mean it's working?
Re:Life under the thumb of cellular phone companie (Score:5, Insightful)
Not when it reboots as a result of you including the reboot command into, to pick a ramdom example, the text of a comment that you are posting to Slashdot.
Parent
Re:Life under the thumb of cellular phone companie (Score:5, Funny)
Parent
Re:Life under the thumb of cellular phone companie (Score:5, Funny)
Instant karma's a bitch.
Parent
A Conversation (Score:5, Funny)
Re:A Conversation (Score:5, Funny)
Parent
Seriously Google... (Score:4, Interesting)
I'm starting to get a little suspicious, to be frank. You've existed for many, many moons, Google...you have over 20,000 employees. You have computing capacity that's normally limited to that of small countries. Shouldn't you be a little further along by now?
Scary (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:False (Score:5, Informative)
I restarted my phone manually, and tried this on a fresh boot. My phone did immediately restart. Yikes.
Parent
Re:Easier than the iPhone (Score:5, Funny)
Parent
Re:Easier than the iPhone (Score:4, Funny)
In the name of all that is holy, who has a file matching *.* in their root?!
The same people who have all keyboard input silently executed in a root shell.
Parent